Property boomed during decade of rock bottom rates
Prices unravel after recent hikes
Crisis claims victims from U.S. to Germany
Small U.S. banks at risk due to outsized property loans

NEW YORKLONDON, Sept 5 Reuters Global property markets, rattled by the steepest rise in interest rates in a generation, will get little relief from the gradual easing of borrowing costs, with scant hope of a return to the free money that fuelled a boom.

The multitrillion dollar industry, which thrived in the decade after the global financial crisis when the cost of money was cut to zero, has been one of the biggest casualties as central banks pushed up borrowing costs.

Now central banks, from the European Central Bank and Bank of England to Switzerland and Sweden, are cutting rates, making it cheaper to borrow, with the U.S. Federal Reserve to follow.

But industry executives and bankers see no quick fix for an industry built as rock bottom rates sent trillions flowing into property, money the sector is now haemorrhaging as bonds and ordinary savings accounts regain their appeal.

We39;re not out of the woods yet, said Andrew Angeli, global head of real estate research at Zurich Insurance, a Swiss investor, arguing the sector was unlikely to see a rapid recovery.

The past two years of rate hikes have claimed scores of victims, including property group Signa, which owned trophy buildings in Germany, leaving behind a trail of halfbuilt homes and empty skyscrapers.

Property…